Twin Thousands: Brooklyn’s Best Burns Bright

From within the orchestral pop core of Twin Thousands, two of Brooklyn’s brightest stars shine. As performing, recording, and touring musicians, Ryan Smith and Gretta Cohn have worked with some of the biggest names in independent music, but their accomplished pasts do not overshadow the radiant sounds of their collaborative present.

From 2001-2005, Gretta Cohn could be heard playing cello in the popular alternative/post-hardcore band, Cursive. She had been living in Brooklyn when the group asked her to join them in Omaha, Nebraska, the home of their record label, Saddle Creek. During this time, Cohn became close with many Saddle Creek bands, performing on record and stage with acts including Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, Thursday, The Good Life, Maria Taylor, and The Faint. In 2005, after an amicable departure from Cursive, Cohn decided to move back to Brooklyn with the intention of forming new musical collaborations and perhaps starting a solo project. One night in 2006, at the now defunct NYC rock club Tonic, Cohn was performing on the same bill as Ryan Smith’s band, A Million Billion.

Prior to A Million Billion, Smith worked with the acclaimed Brooklyn bands Stars Like Fleas, and The Silent League, and produced remixes for Public Enemy and Bloc Party. A Million Billion was formed in 2005 as Smith’s solo project, and a year later, he recruited Michael Fadem, Jon Natchez, and Silent League members Kevin Thaxton and Gene Park to accompany his “orchestrated pop songs.” Bassist Thaxton and guitarist, keyboardist, and violinist Park were soon asked to join Smith on vocals and piano, and Cohn on vocals, synthesizer, cello, melodica, glockenspiel, and ukulele in their latest musical venture. Together with Thayer McClanahan on guitar and Peter Smith on drums, the entity now known as Twin Thousands was fully formed.

Twin Thousands writes and performs pop music that is both strikingly sophisticated and entirely enjoyable. Fixed on a framework of contemporary song structure, their expertly charted and inventively arranged compositions combine 80’s synth pop with epic rock opera, the likes of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Atmospheric, symphonic introductions flow into soothing vocals and sweet harmonies, propelled by dynamic electronic and acoustic beats. Waves of sound rise steadily, built from guitars, synthesizers, and horns, before breaking into exuberant choruses of piano, distorted electric guitar, and choirs of celebratory voices.

Fronting the majority of Twin Thousands’ songs are Smith’s gentle, clear-toned vocals. Never whispered, and sometimes in falsetto, these words are sung softly with plaintive honesty: “I got back into bed, and just pretended she was dead”; “There’s not much left that I can do but sit around and think of you”; “I hope you stay, the house is colder, we’re getting older”; “I’m tired of waiting: nothing’s ever changed.” Feathery backing vocals hover above, courtesy of Cohn, who takes the lead in the superb pop song, “Tailfeather.”

Although “Volcano Season,” “7 is 8,” “Fireworks,” and “Midnight Movies” are more representative of Twin Thousands’ overall sound, “Like You A Lot” is their standout track. The glimmering, harmonized vocals of Smith and Cohn float weightlessly in a warm, bright blue, shining with synth and guitars. Cohn sings, “I like you a lot, I like you when I get what I want” at the end of the song’s supremely catchy chorus. A music video for “Like You A Lot” was produced by British film company Agag Films.

Twin Thousands released a single for “Like You A Lot” in the UK, and has been included on several compilations through A Million Billion’s label, EXERCISE1 Recordings. The band’s three song, self-released Summer EP has sold out, but their recently completed, debut full-length – recorded mostly at home studios, and mixed with “the great” D. James Goodwin at The Isokon – is hoped to be available to the public in the fall.

In an interview with JezebelMusic.com, Ryan Smith and Gretta Cohn shared their thoughts about Brett Favre, Department of Eagles, and intelligent design.

JezebelMusic.com: How did Twin Thousands form?

Gretta Cohn: One night in 2006 Ryan and I both played at Tonic (in different bands). He gave me a CD, which I ignored of course. A few months later we met again and decided that we would play music together as long as we didn’t have to play the music on the CDs he originally gave me.

Ryan Smith: The band is a direct result of intelligent design.

JM: Ha, okay. So, how did everyone come to be in the band? How do you all know each other?

RS: Kevin and Gene are two of the first people I met when I moved to New York; Kevin had a moustache back then. Thayer and I met at a Sparks concert, he’s the only one that can outSpark me. Peter rescued us from drummer limbo.

GC: I was living in Brooklyn, when Cursive asked me to join them in Omaha, which I did. When I returned to Brooklyn in 2005, I played music with friends here and there, until we formed Twin Thousands.

JM: What’s the songwriting process like for Twin Thousands?

RS: We write theme songs to accompany the short situational comedies we produce for our corporate sponsors’ in-house promotional videos.

GC: Like many bands, we work on our own as well as collaboratively… Ryan and I will work on material both separately as well as together, and the rest of the guys in the band will bring their thoughts and ideas to bear upon the songs as well. For me, I will start with words and vocal melodies and rhythms, then I’ll move towards arranging the song in relation to the words/melodies. Of course, things continue to change until they reach a point when they feel like they no longer need to be in flux. I’m not sure that I can point to my work and say that I’ve got particular themes going on, but any listener spending time with it might come away with some thoughts and ideas. I only started singing these last few years, but I really love it. It’s come to the point where I only play cello in our live set about 1/3 of the time.

JM: What types of things do you write about?

RS: It used to be Brett Favre the Packer, now it’s Brett Favre the Viking (fingers crossed). Brett Favre the Jet is very uninspiring.

GC: Jose Reyes.

JM: What kinds of music do you listen to? What inspires you?

RS: Lots of things, including Young Marble Giants, The Old Plastic Ponies, I am a Skilled Elderly Carpenter, Anthony & Dola/DC, Venetian Snares, but mostly Doom (game and rapper).

GC: I listen to all kinds of music. Lately, I’ve had the Department of Eagles on repeat. But I also have been digging into my record collection and some excavations include: Miles Davis Bitches Brew, Fugazi End Hits, and Edith Piaf LPs.

JM: Do you have any funny or stories to tell about a particular show or experience on the road?

RS: Our first time in England our drummer had to fly back home because of a family emergency. We had to play out the rest of the tour without him.

GC: We finished the tour as a four piece, played all the songs low and quiet, and people really loved it.

JM: What’s up with the orange/purple/green/blue-Thousands MySpace pages?

RS: Those are our top friends; big, BIG, fans.

JM: How did the video for “Like You a Lot” come to be?

RS: We didn’t know anything about the video being made until we saw the finished version; we’re glad they made it, we like it… a lot HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! LOL! OMG!

by Dan D’Ippolito